Life of an Ancient
by Maverick1997
Summary: SparkSoul is one of the Praxian Ancients, brought up in a life of violence. She struggles to cope with system upgrades and the responsibility of looking after other younger bots while trying to grow up herself. Prequel to Life of a Datsun and A Hell on Cybertron
1. Chapter 1

Hey Everyone! Here is a new fic for my Transformers universe i seem to have going on. This fic provides some background to the OC SparkSoul who appears in both Life of a Datsun and A Hell on Cybertron. This story is set before both of the others and links directly into "To the Academy and Beyond." I hope you all enjoy the story, it's finished on my computer so there won't be issues about updating regularly. :D That's a first. Enjoy!

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Chapter 1

Cybertron's sprawling cities are still while the bright moon shines over all. Very few mecha are online yet, a select few populating the entire planet. More bots are being brought online each day by those who live on the surface of the metallic planet. It's the early years of Cybertron. The moon is still young and their resources are plentiful.

There are two main controlling families on the planet, the Praxian Spark family and a similar family from Kaon. These two ruling families don't interact at all and are opposing one another in their ideals.

A sprawling mansion sits in the centre of Praxus, owned by the Spark's it's the most expensive house in the city. The building stretches high into the air, spires reaching up as though to touch the moons which pass over. It stretches down beneath the earth, burrowing deep into the planet. Twenty bots live within the building permanently and there are other staff for the menial duties. Creator 1 rules over the house, head of the Spark family. As well as him there are two other creators, in two separate wings of the place. They live there for parts of the vorn but they also travel to other cities as they please-as long as they are not with spark.

In addition to the creators there are eight creations, with two sets of split sparks. Of the eight two are femmes with the others all mechs. The oldest is SparkTwister, while the youngest is SparkSoul. Each of them is named for their specific abilities and each is as vicious as the other.

"SparkSoul get moving, training is happening soon and you better be there on time. You know what happens if you don't get there," SparkSmasher yells as he zips past her in the hallways. He's in the next frame size up and towers over his much smaller younger sibling.

SparkSoul in turns scowls and runs as fast as her small frame allows her to. She doesn't make it in time to the training, just as usual. The siblings don't help each other out and being young or small is no excuse in this household.

She arrives with her vents whining with the effort of pushing air throughout her hot frame. Her optics are blank though, despite knowing what punishment lays ahead for her. She walks in calmly and stands against the wall at the back, at the end of the line of siblings.

SparkSoul is dwarfed by every single one of them. She's the youngest by a hundred vorns, not a huge amount of time but enough that ever sibling is in a much larger frame. Creator One is already in the room, standing at the front of the training room as usual.

The room is dim and expansive. It could fit twenty large mechs lying flat, long ways across the room. As for height the ceiling can't even be seen from where SparkSoul stands. The whole place is extremely dark. There are no lights within this room.

"You are late again SparkSoul! You are a disgrace," Creator One growls as he launches his creation across the room.

SparkSoul goes flying into the far wall, some of her plating caving in from the impact. She struggles to her feet and walks silently over to the line again. She says nothing, just stands still as she has been taught to do.

The young femme is once again picked up and hurtled across the training room, this time with much more force. One of her arms is completely crushed by the impact while her helm is dangerously caved in.

Yet again she just walks over to the line and stands still, in her designated spot. Her chin is level with the ground, not lifted in arrogance nor tilted down out of cowardice. She stands still and waits for the orn's training to begin.

"Match up and begin your sparring."

SparkSoul turns to SparkStealer, her usual sparring partner. They work through the different types of fighting that they must practice. Each hit that the sisters land is hard and damages the other's armour. By the end of this first small training session they are both covered in dents, SparkSoul's much deeper than Sparkstealer's.

They move on to working with different weapons. Each creation is working with a different weapon of choice; the older ones are learning to use blasters while SparkSoul and the other younger ones are working with different types of blades. SparkStealer is using the tandem swords, swishing them back and forth with an ease which seems impossible to achieve to SparkSoul. She is working with two sets of long swords, a lead up into working with the tandem swords.

They are heavy in her hands as she follows her sister's movements. The two swords have to be in perfect synchronicity so that they don't suddenly unbalance causing a surge of energy through your spark.

The training session runs for joors, stretching on throughout the entire orn. When it ends each of the creations are exhausted, their energy levels severely depleted as they stumble from the room. Creator One just watches with a blank face as they file out in silence.

O0o0o0o0o0o0o00

"You get your new frame today, you excited?" SparkStealer announces from where she's perched on the edge of SparkSoul's berth.

"Not really, it won't change anything. The rest of you will still have bigger frames than me," SparkSoul replies as she rolls a ball of iron between her digits.

"At least you'll have a growing frame. And you'll finally be able to take on alternate modes and have numerous frames after a couple of vorns."

"Yeah, I guess…"

"You'll love it, you'll see."

SparkSoul isn't so convinced but she doesn't let her sister know that as SparkStealer quietly leaves the room. She gives up with the ball of iron and checks her chronometer, sighing when she realises that it's time to head down to their medical room.

When she arrives the medics are ready for her. Neither of her creators are here but she didn't really expect them to be. They don't really bother with this kind of thing. They might've with SparkTwister but it probably got too boring for them after the third creation. SparkSoul just jumps up onto the berth and lies down flat.

This is her third frame change but only the second one she's been fully aware of. The medics hook up some different cables to her frame and everything fades to black.

She becomes conscious again to streams of code running before her optics.

Initiate battle computer 1

Initialising…

Online battle computer 2

Onlining…

Online audio receivers…

Onlining

Battle computers 1 and 2 online

Audio receivers online

A rush of sound assaults SparkSoul's audio receivers and she tones down their sensitivity in order to not be so overwhelmed.

Sensors onlining….

Sensors online.

The next thing SparkSoul is aware of is the added perception of her surroundings now that she's in this new frame. She has large doorwings which provide a massive sensor net but also act as a major weak spot during battle.

Finally her optics come online and she can see again. Going by her chronometer she's been out less than a joor now. The medics aren't anywhere near her, this her sensors confirm. They're likely off in the adjoining room fixing up one of her siblings or doing routine maintenance checks on the guards of the household.

SparkSoul swings into a sitting position to stretch out her new joints. There's a large mirror on the other side of the room, providing her with a view of her entire frame. Upon her forehead lies a red chevron and her optics flash red. The frame is a rich black, just like her last.

Nothing about her frame is different from the frames of her siblings except for the chevron. Each of them has a different colour, to distinguish them apart. SparkTwister's is purple while SparkStealer's is an obnoxious pink in colour.

Glancing back over her shoulder there's no movement from the medics so SparkSoul figures she's good to leave. Dropping of the berth she takes a moment to get used to her new centre of balance and gravity before leaving the room.

She's not surprised to find SparkStealer waiting in her room when she gets there. SparkStealer is perched upon her berth yet again. It seems to be the femme's usual seat, it's not often that she can't be found there. SparkSoul isn't sure why her sister never stays in her own room but doesn't really question it. It's usually better to leave the sensitive issues alone when it comes to her siblings.

"So do you like it?"

"I guess, my helm hurts though."

"That's just the battle computers. Better talk to SparkTricker or SparkIllusion about that. They've got battle computers but the rest of us don't."

SparkSoul doesn't respond, just sits down on the floor carefully. This frame is much heavier than her last. Her joints are aching though, she's not sure if this is the frame adjusting to the strength of her spark or if they're in need of lubricant.

SparkStealer eyes the femme before her critically before speaking again. "Your frame is already adjusting. Maybe you have a stronger spark than we thought."

SparkSoul thinks she hears some disdain in her sister's voice but doesn't comment on it. She's not big enough yet to get her own say in things, and she's definitely not big enough yet to get to know the older siblings well.

"Hmph, well don't be late for training tomorrow. It's going to be tough enough without you getting beaten up beforehand."

SparkSoul hasn't even responded by the time her sister goes flying out of the room and down the hallways. Finally left alone she climbs onto her berth, attempting to ignore the growing pain in her helm. It seems she's going to be one of the tacticians of the family. Before now she had preferred to ignore which position she would take in a fight but now it's glaring her in the faceplates. A tactician like some of her older siblings.

The femme isn't sure which position her older sister takes, prefers not to analyse it too closely. Her other brothers are heavy hitters; they've got strong, sturdy frames which can take a lot of damage as well as dish it out.

SparkSmasher, SparkDrainer, SparkCrusher and SparkTwister are their heavy hitters. Their sparks are strong enough to sustain their massive frames. The younger two, SparkDrainer and SparkSmasher are both still stretching out their frames as their sparks gain strength.

SparkSoul settles into recharge as she thinks about the different roles her siblings play in their family.

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Thanks for reading. Please review and let me know what you think of the story.


	2. Chapter 2

Hey Everyone, here is chapter two! Thanks to those of you who have reviewed, favourited and alerted this fic so far. There is a chapter that is meant to go between this one and Chapter One however due to the content within it I can't post it here. It's not essential to the story, however I think it helps to explain why SparkSoul is compassionate when Prowl is assaulted in Life of a Datsun. For those of you who wish to read the chapter i'm going to post it on Livejournal and you can pm me or let me know in a review if you would like to read it and i'll send you a link. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, next update shall be next week on Thursday.

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Chapter 2

SparkSoul's frame continues to readjust as the vorns pass. She gets used to every little nuance in the frame however she never has time to get used to one battle computer before it gets upgraded. Her older siblings are ahead of her by a few models and she wishes she could talk to them about how to minimise the pain; knowing them though they likely just ignore it, orn in orn out. That's what their training is meant to teach them, to ignore pain.

As time has passed she's noticed the amount of subspace pockets she has and the strength that her frame holds. She's no longer as lithe or quick as SparkIlllusion or SparkTricker. She's heavier than either of them, plating thick and heavy across her frame. Her frame isn't quite as heavy duty as SparkSmashers but then again she isn't anywhere near as old as he is.

Training becomes progressively harder, moving from working with weapons to spark fighting. That's the most difficult kind of training and SparkSoul dreads each session. They only train like this once throughout a decaorn, it's too draining to do more.

Their creator doesn't get involved, instead SparkTwister leads the session. It's gotten to the point where Creator One doesn't even come to the sessions, barely checks up on them at all. It seems as though he's finished with them and has just left them to their oldest sibling to be looked after.

Today though is one of the days where they're going to spark fight and SparkSoul isn't happy about it. She reaches the training room before SparkStealer though which is definitely a good thing. Her sister has been coming later and later to each training session. More often than not she comes in late enough to get punished by SparkTwister.

Before now SparkSoul hadn't really realised how sickening it is to watch someone's helm plating cave in as they crash against a wall, or how haunting it is to watch someone just get up and walk back to their place with expressionless faceplates.

"Alright, different partnering today. Sparkillusion you're matched up against Sparksmasher. SparkStealer you're matched up against SparkCrusher. SparkSoul you're up against SparkDrainer. That leaves SparkTricker to face me. You all know the drill by now. The first to take down their partner, using their sparks only, wins the round."

SparkSoul walks over to SparkDrainer who gives her a feral grin before folding back all of his plating, putting it into subspace. It leaves him standing there, a swirling dark mass of spark energy. This outline of a mech is as dark as SparkSoul's frame, pure black in colour.

Without a sound of reaction SparkSoul retracts her own armour, the shifting and sliding metal barely making a sound compared to the other frames within the room. She reduces herself to a swirling mass of energy before she leaps at her brother, he does the same. Their sparks shape themselves into wolf like creatures as they lunge forwards. They grapple and snarl without making a sound, a silent dance of energy and power. SparkSoul gets a good grip on SparkDrainer's neck but loses it within astroseconds. In return SparkDrainer pins her to the ground, tearing at her spark energy in a bid to win the fight. It goes back and forth like this until SparkDrainer manages to get a solid grip on SparkSoul's neck, signifying his victory.

The first round is over and they're into the second. Fury fills SparkSoul as she lunges forwards again. The two siblings slash at one another, dance around in a circle of fury. They dart in and back out again, trying to get the upper hand. With the fury fuelling her SparkSoul lunges forwards and connects with SparkDrainer. She forces him to the ground before lunging in to grip his neck within her teeth, hard. She doesn't move as he claws at her spark, just tightens her grip on his neck.

She doesn't release him because he just keeps moving, back and forth back and forth. She doesn't notice that the rest of their siblings have stopped their own fights to watch. SparkSoul isn't backing down on this, staying right where she is. SparkDrainer gets his claws deep into her spark and tears at it but she doesn't waver in her hold.

"That's it, break it off. SparkSoul's won that round."

SparkTwister's voice breaks through the haze of concentration which clouds SparkSoul's processor. She releases her grip slowly and backs away. Her chest stings slightly but she doesn't worry about it, more worried about SparkDrainer's reaction. It's the first time she's been able to take down any of her siblings and SparkDrainer is one of the strongest in the family.

He shakes himself off and regains his footing. Seconds later he's lunging at SparkSoul again. She returns his ferocity three fold and they tangle on the floor again. Snarling and ripping at one another. SparkSoul fights to get the upper hand, feeling the power in her spark.

It surprises SparkSoul when she knocks her brother to the ground, hard after lunging with only half of her energy. She's not feeling as tired as usual but is trying to conserve energy anyway. She utilises the advantage though, straining forwards to get a good grip on her brother's neck. She holds tight, teeth digging in while her brother squirms.

SparkTwister has to break them up again, grabbing each by the scruff to throw them to the ground a metre apart. SparkSoul doesn't have time to release her grip and so rips part of SparkDrainer's spark as she is thrown away. It receives a low growl from her brother but no overly large reaction.

SparkSoul gains her feet again, looking up towards SparkTwister to see what he wants them to do. They've fought their three rounds but sometimes they do more training afterwards-it all depends on how Twister is feeling.

"Alright you two, change back to your usual form."

SparkSoul lurches upright in her spark form before withdrawing all of her plating from subspace. She starts with her heavy outer armour before layering her more malleable plating underneath. It takes her mere seconds, faster than it took for her to get the plating off.

Now that she's within her frame again her thoughts become less emotive and much more clinical, logical even. Her battle computer hums within energy as it comes out of power down. Her processor is already running at full power. SparkDrainer standing across from her is just now getting all of his plating assembled. SparkSoul feels pleased at the progress she's made.

SparkDrainer glares at SparkSoul once he's got his frame sorted out. She doesn't smile, just keeps her faceplates extremely blank as she's used to doing.

"Alright, that's it for the training session today. Don't forget tomorrow we're working with the swords again. Rest up, all of you. SparkSoul stay behind I want to talk to you."

SparkSoul doesn't tremble but it's a close thing. She's likely to be in for a punishment now, most likely to do with beating SparkDrainer today. The word "talk" coming from anyone else doesn't actually mean talking. It usually means getting pummelled to a pulp and spending a day in medical trying to get sorted out.

"Good work today, you're getting stronger. Tomorrow you're missing the training session because you're getting another update to your battle computers. Oh and, you're allowed into our hang out room now, you're old enough."

"Thank you."

SparkSoul turns and leaves the room, it's the first time she's ever been able to talk to her eldest brother one on one.

Instead of heading straight for the hang out room where undoubtedly all of her siblings are, SparkSoul heads for her room for some time to think. She's gotten much stronger over the past few orns. She wasn't even this strong yesterorn.

She lies down on her berth and stares up at the ceiling, feeling the strength which spreads outwards from her spark into the rest of her frame. Her whole frame hums with the energy, from the soles of her pedes right through to the tips of her doorwings the metal of her frame vibrates.

Slowly SparkSoul falls into recharge as the humming energy continues to shape her frame, making it taller and bulkier.

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Thanks for reading. Please review!


	3. Chapter 3

Hey Everyone! Here is chapter 3 a little bit later than expected but it's here now. If you would like to read chapter 1 1/2 let me know and I'll give you a link to get there. I hope you enjoy this chapter and I love hearing from you guys!

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Chapter 3

More vorns pass and SparkSoul becomes closer friends with some of her older siblings, most notably SparkIllusion. She can talk to him now like she hasn't ever been able to before. After her latest upgrades she's been feeling awfully out of sorts, helm hurting to the point of tears. She doesn't know what causes it or how she's meant to be able to fix it.

She arrives at the door to SparkIllusion's room sometime in the early evening, knocking gently before she enters. None of her other siblings really talk to Illusion much and she's the only one who really bothers to come to his room. If the rest of their siblings want to speak they'll wait until he's in their common room of sorts.

SparkIllusion is sitting at his small desk as she enters. He's focused on his data pad so she walks in quietly to perch on the berth. The lights are dimmer here than they are in her own room. Easier on the optics and it certainly reduces some of the pain in SparkSoul's helm. She makes a mental note to adjust the brightness in her own room before clearing her vocaliser softly.

SparkIllusion's head jerks upwards as he twirls around to look at her. He visibly relaxes once he identifies her. SparkSoul thinks he doesn't get along with their siblings because he doesn't like the training or the fighting. It sets him apart from the rest of them, even SparkSoul.

"What are you doing here Soul, would have thought you would be off training or reading?"

"I was wondering, does your processor or battle computer give you a lot of pain? My other ones have hurt a lot but this one is much worse. I…is there anything I can do about it?"

"Hmmm you've got the model before the one I have, it's very finicky. I found that routing my spark through the battle computer assisted in keeping the pain down. I think it's something to do with emotions and how they aren't compatible with the logic of the battle computer."

"Oh, thanks. Do I route my spark through both or just the main one?"

"Both?" questions SparkIllusion looking confused and not just a little bit alarmed.

"I have two battle computers; have since I first got this frame."

"No wonder your spark is so strong, you're running two battle computers and a major frame. I'd put it through both if I were you, it should work fine."

"Thanks, I'll let you get back to your stuff," SparkSoul says as she gestures to her brother's data tablet.

He gives her a small smile before turning back to his desk and what SparkSoul can see now as a bunch of tactical simulations. She slips out of the door carefully before making her way to her own room.

SparkSoul hadn't realised that her other siblings only had one battle computer. Was it even safe to have two of them in one helm? They run smooth enough together, linked as they are. Still sometimes data is dropped between the two when running through major simulations. Then again some of the time her processor, as advanced as it is, can't handle the amount of data being thrown around and she has to shut down one of the computers.

SparkSoul sits down upon her berth before attempting to route her spark through the two battle computers housed in her helm. There's an additional battle computer in the room, hooked up to the datapad sitting upon her desk in the far corner. As she creates the program to run the routing she notices an error which hadn't popped up prior to this. It's not a large error but certainly a reoccurring one. Without having gone into her battle computer to work on the routing she wouldn't even have seen them.

Error: data does not compute

Next to the message is a number signifying how many times this particular error has popped up. It's in the hundreds of thousands already and she's only had these two battle computers for three orns. The only data being run that many times in an orn would be her emotions.

The routing program is soon written and SparkSoul reclines onto the berth as it begins to run. Her frame is always humming with energy and doesn't seem to be slowing in its growing. The humming reduces a little in her pedes as some of her spark energy is diverted to run through her two battle computers. She feels the moment they fall into synchronicity, her spark and the two battle computers because there is a sudden relief in her helm. It's almost overwhelming, the distinct lack of pain reverberating throughout her frame.

Sitting up her helm continues to be mostly pain free. There is some pain there, mainly from the heat coming from the three major processing components within her helm. However, it's such a relief from what she is used to feeling. She's used to the growing pain which spreads from one computer to the next straight through into her processor which makes it hard for her to keep her pain receptors online.

The only other thing which could do anything would be some helm vents but that's not happening for a while. Maybe when they all get to leave the house and actually explore the planet. When they are allowed to get numerous frames and pick up a couple of alternate modes, which will be when she starts to modify her own frame. She might as some heavier armour, two processors instead of one, just to make it all a little easier.

However the heavier armour can be scratched from her list when the next day every single one of the siblings gets dragged into the medical bay to have an armour upgrade. SparkSoul skips two levels in armour strength while everyone else only goes up one. The armour for the heavy hitters is much stronger and bulkier than what goes onto the SparkStealer. Surprisingly though SparkIllusion ends up with very heavy armour but when SparkSoul thinks about it later it's probably pretty smart.

SparkIllusion isn't that much of a fighter and the armour could protect him a lot. They'll need his computer on the battlefield, even if they won't need his battle skills.

SparkSoul's pretty proud of the fact that she's now one of the better fighters in the family. She's much better than SparkIllusion and SparkStealer now. In all honesty she's equal to SparkSmasher in battle now. The others have seemed to notice it too, which just makes SparkSoul try harder. She wants to be better, stronger than the rest of them after she's spent so long being weaker than all of them.

They come out of the medical bay much heavier than when they went in. They're all adjusting to their new centre of balance as they walk back to their own rooms. It's late in the orn and SparkSoul is preparing to work through some of her tactical scenarios.

She walks back to her room alone and sits down at the table in the corner of the room. The datapad is on the desk in front of her so she picks it up and starts reading through it all. Her battle computer hums along in the background, only the main one online for the moment. The second one is just in sleep mode for a while until it's required.

As the scenarios get consistently harder she boots up the second battle computer to settle down and work through it all. She flies through it all easy enough, not even the hardest scenario proving a problem.

Not long after she lies down on her berth and falls into recharge.

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Thanks for reading, please review!


	4. Chapter 4

Hey Everyone! Sorry for taking a while to upload, life got a bit busy there. I hope you all enjoy this chapter and considering this chapter is pretty short I'll also be uploading Chapter 5 today. :) Let me know what you think in a review, I'm getting around to answering them all now!

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Chapter 4

The next vorn SparkSoul and the rest of her siblings are up early for training with the tandem swords. There's an art to using them and none of them yet have mastered it. Today they get to work individually with them, alone in their own training rooms.

SparkSoul settles into it easily, enjoying the silence that comes with being alone, the lack of judgement. She picks up the swords and holds them by the grips, gently resting them in the palms of her palm. She feels the power coursing through each of them and she reaches out the energy from her spark towards them. Suddenly there's a feeling of completion and she can feel the swords as though they're an extension of her frame, can sense the air as it courses over each blade.

She whirls them around experimentally, the woosh of the blade sending shudders through her frame. SparkSoul moves through every sequence she's every learnt, so much easier now than it ever has been before. The connection forged links her with these swords. When she finishes practice she can't put them down, they're almost magnetically connected to her hands.

Instead of putting them down she locates the subspaces in each of her arms and powers down the blades before retracting them into her arms. Even inside her frame she can feel them humming with energy but it's not unnerving, quite the opposite they're a comfort.

SparkSoul leaves the training room to join the others in the big hall. She's the last to arrive but that's alright, they all take a different amount of time with their individual training. It's about the only time that you don't get injured for coming in late.

"Alright, time for the team session now. Pick up your swords and find your space in the room. You all know the drill."

SparkSoul settles into her position in the line and withdraws the swords from her subspaces, letting them fall into place in each hand. Everyone else just grabs one from their other hand and settles into the routine.

SparkSoul must be doing something right though because as she moves through her routine she can feel optics focusing on her form. The plating on the back of her neck tingles but she ignores it, continuing through the different movements that she is required to complete.

At the end they all straighten up and SparkSoul subspaces her swords. SparkTwister is standing in front of the line, looking up and down each individual. He focuses slightly longer on SparkSoul before continuing on.

"You all did well today however only one of you has mastered the tandem swords. I expect much more of each of you and so does our creator. You need to learn to use them properly, even if they aren't your weapon of choice. As Sparks we have to be able to utilise every weapon available at any time. The majority of you are failing! SparkSoul, demonstrate your use of the swords."

Surprised SparkSoul steps forwards and withdraws her swords, moving through a short sequence. The energy of the swords hums through her frame as she holds them loosely, twirling them back and forth. A large sweep sends the humming to higher levels before it peters off again.

The femme returns to her place in the line, stepping back next to SparkDrainer and SparkSmasher.

"That is how you all must learn to use your swords. I expect better in the next practice, otherwise you shall be punished."

That's the groups dismissal so everyone leaves the room, bar SparkTwister. SparkSoul heads towards the common area, even as the majority of her siblings head back towards their rooms. SparkTricker accompanies her to the common room, walking companionably in silence. They sprawl across the chairs placed in the room when they arrive, leading their helms thud back onto the comfortable metal.

"How did you manage it?" SparkTricker asks, breaking the silence that filled the room.

"I'm not sure, I just felt a connection with the swords. I think my spark and the swords got in tune or something."

"Hmm, I'll give it a go next time. I always thought that the better technique that you used the better the connection with the swords would be. However, our technique's been the same up until now but today you were doing everything perfectly. SparkTwister was impressed you know," SparkTricker says, giving his sister a smile.

"That'd be the first time for him then. He's like our creator, never showing any emotion. He doesn't even lighten up when it's just us!"

"He's being trained to be the head of our group, to lead us in battle when our creator isn't there. He can't be that friendly with us if he's going to order us around."

"I guess, but it's just weird the way he isn't really one of us or one of the creators. It's like he's some weird hybrid."

"Ha, you just keep thinking that. He's the strongest out of all of us, his spark is extremely powerful."

"I don't doubt it. But the rest of us are still young, we might be as strong as him."

"I'm not, I don't think my spark is even as strong as yours, and you're the youngest."

"Hmph, you're just saying that. Your spark is strong!"

"I wish. I'm a tactician because I don't have the power to be one of the heavy hitters."

SparkSoul doesn't have a reply to that so she lapses into silence and the siblings sit companionably as the orn passes by.

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Thanks for reading. Please let me know what you think.


	5. Chapter 5

Hey Everyone! Here is a longer chapter for you all. I hope you enjoy reading it and I'll try to get the next chapter up sometime next week. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far, I'm loving the feedback I've gotten on this story. I've just uploaded Chapter 4 so make sure you don't skip that one and please let me know what you think in a review. Enjoy!

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Chapter 5

Cybertron's cities sprawl over expansive areas of metal, reaching up into the skies. Praxus and Kaon are some of the largest while the newer cities of Tyger Pax and Iacon are just starting to spread their arms outwards into the surrounding area.

Thousands upon thousands of vorns have passed since the Spark family first established themselves as the rulers of Praxus. Their city has grown in leaps and bounds with millions of bots populating it. The road ways are smooth and the traffic never builds up. Tourists come and go visiting the beautiful architectural attractions within the city limits. Lights are always burning throughout the orn, lighting up the vast city. Cybertron's moon circle the planet providing a little light but not enough for the daily lives of each bot. Their star is too far away to provide enough light for them all.

SparkSoul and her siblings are yet to leave the confines of their massive home, stuck with their training and learning as time flies past them. The boundaries of time barely affect them, their frames not aging like those of other bots, for they are the family of ancients. Their sparks are made to burn on for thousands upon thousands of millennia. SparkTwister is only just reaching the age of adult maturity while the rest are still considered younglings to their kind.

They have all matured though, now they are almost adult like in their thoughts and actions. It is only the brightness of their sparks and the newness of their frames which gives away their true age.

SparkSoul leaves her room to head upstairs towards their formal meeting room for when her and her siblings are meant to talk with their creators. She meets SparkTricker along the way and they gently bump shoulders as they climb the winding staircase.

The room they enter together is plush and rich in its furnishings. There are twelve chairs here, situated in a circular configuration, normally used for when their creators are entertaining guests of some description. There are a number of rooms like this throughout the house, each used for a different sort of occasion and different types of bots. This one has very large chairs, suiting the overly large frames of the siblings.

Most of them are taller than the Prime now, stretching tall while holding a large amount of bulk, allowing them to be imposing and deliver extensive damage to their opponents. The chairs are small in comparison to each of them. When they sit the majority of their upper body extends above the backrest. As each of them settle into their respective seats they pull their doorwings in close to their body in order to create more space.

Neither of their creators are here yet, and SparkStealer is yet to turn up. The rest of them though are waiting patiently, doorwings twitching slightly every time a draught comes through the room. SparkSoul is closest to one of the wide windows in the room. Moonlight shines into the room however it barely contributes anything to the lighting, the huge ceiling lights illuminating the room fully.

The artificial light shines off of each of their frames, glancing away and towards the ground. Each time anyone shifts light is reflected across the room before settling down again.

Footsteps are heard coming down the halls, they aren't light enough to be SparkStealer's so it must be their creators coming. There are four sets of steps though so that's slightly odd. The meeting was only meant to be between their creators and them.

SparkSoul straightens up as Creator One and Creator Two enter the room. Their frames shine brightly as they walk in and take their seats. She can't tell whether or not Creator One has noticed SparkStealer's absence but it's more likely than not that he has. He always notices the absence of one of his creations. It's as though he can sense where each of them are at any given time.

Following their creators there are two other tall bots. They are similar to in frame type to Creator Two. They stand tall and rather slim, with doorwings upon their backs. They are black in colour and their optics are a dark red. They aren't ancients however their spark resonance is strong.

They come into the room and wait by the doors, standing shoulder to shoulder and being as innocuous as possible.

Creator One is the first to speak, eyes darting around the room to look over each of their frames.

"We've called you here in order to speak to you about your duties. You are all at an age now when you can handle the responsibility which is going to be handed to you. The two bots near the doorway are Creators Three and Four. Their creations are your half siblings and yours to look after."

"Your chevrons do more than tell you apart, they signify which of your half siblings you will look after. You will be meeting them later this orn, the ones with the same coloured chevron as you are the ones that you will be looking after. You are to form a partial siblings bond with each of them so that you will know when you need to assist them. If they require assistance you are to teleport yourselves to where they are. You will protect them," Creator Two adds.

"This is your second most important duty, your first being to fight our family's battles, as you know. You are dismissed for now, meet in the great hall later."

All of the creations file out of the room, one behind the other. They bow their heads to each of their creators in turn before leaving the room. They walk silently down the hallways until they reach the stairs. From here they separate to head to their own rooms, SparkSoul and SparkTricker heading to the common room instead.

"So what do you think about all this?" SparkTricker asks as he settles down upon one of the couches.

"It's glorified babysitting is what it is."

"Nah, we don't have to look after them when they're little or anything, just have to make sure they don't get mauled by some of the Kaonians."

"That'll be easy enough."

"Yeah, it'll be fine."

They wait there until they feel a tug on their sparks, meaning their creator wishes for them to come to him. Instead of walking the entire way to the great hall, located at the complete other end of the house they teleport there. They use the spark connection to their creator to reach him within an astrosecond.

They're the first two to arrive but their other siblings aren't far behind. Surprisingly though SparkStealer doesn't arrive with the rest of them. SparkSoul has a niggling feeling of worry but pushes it aside as all of her siblings line up.

In front of them are about fifty bots, mechs and femmes. Upon each helm is a chevron: blue, red, pink, grey, white, green, yellow and purple. There seems to be an equal amount of bots with each colour. SparkSoul lets her optics dart over the crowd, singling out each bot with a red chevron which matches her own. In addition she looks for those with a pink chevron, figuring that if her sister isn't here someone should at least forge a connection with each of them in case any issues arise.

"Alright, in front of you are the bots you are to protect, Creator Three will be separating them into colour groups so that the process is made easier," Creator One says before stepping back.

Creator Three has already gotten the bots into their groups, spread throughout the room. The red and pink chevronned bots are grouped next to each other so SparkSoul makes her way over to them all. The optics of each bot is focused on all of the ancients.

SparkSoul reaches her group of bots and smiles at them all.

"Hello, I'm SparkSoul."

None of them respond however one steps forwards and bows their head. SparkSoul just reaches out a hand to tap them on the helm, letting her spark energy curl from her hand and into the mech's frame to caress his spark. He's young but not a sparkling, he's probably only just been transferred to this frame.

The connection takes and the mech steps back and another bot steps forward. SparkSoul repeats the process numerous times until each of the bots she is to look after has forged a sibling bond with her. For them it is a full sibling bond, for her it is only half strength. She is to look after seven bots, all mechs.

Turning to the side SparkSoul notices that her sister hasn't shown up yet so with a sigh she turns towards the other group of bots and gestures for them to join her group. They do so nervously, shifting from pede to pede.

"I'm SparkSoul, my sister SparkStealer is meant to be watching out for you however she's not here today. I'll be forming the sibling bond with you instead."

The first of the six bots steps forwards and SparkSoul repeats her earlier process with each of them. The bond is just as strong with each of these mechs and femmes as it is with her group. SparkSoul is rather sceptical of SparkStealer's participation in this whole thing so it's better to be safe than sorry. It's going to come down on all their heads if one of them gets injured by some Kaonian.

There's a gap between where the red chevronned mechs stand and where the pink chevronned mechs and femmes stand. In SparkStealer's group there is three mechs and three femmes, an even split.

In most of the other groups there's an even split between mechs and femmes however SparkIllusion and SparkTricker both seem to have groups that are made up of only mechs. Must be something to do with the fact that they are all tacticians, it probably isn't a coincidence.

A signal from Creator One and SparkSoul leaves the group of mechs and femmes to head to the front of the room and line up with her siblings. Each of them keep their doorwings spread wide, the emblem of their family standing out in glowing red.

Once lined up Creator One begins to speak to the entire room, no longer directing his attention towards his most prized creations.

"The ancient that you have just formed a bond with will look out for you in case of dire trouble. They have similar traits to each of you, those of you with battle computers your protector has one too. This is so that they can watch over you each to the best of their abilities."

With this Creator One is finished speaking and he leaves the room. Creator Two, who has been standing against the wall at the very front of the room in the shadows, follows him out. SparkSoul and the others turn and leave as well, filing out the door.

Creators Three and Four are left to deal with their creations as they all head back to their rooms. SparkTricker and SparkSoul walk out and teleport away to the common room, followed by SparkSmasher and SparkDrainer. The rest disappear to their room or the training rooms for some practice.

SparkSoul and SparkTricker share a couch while the other two pace around the small common room.

"I don't want to have to look after some pesky creations who can't look after themselves. They're pathetic! We're so much better than this, we shouldn't have to do it," SparkSmasher growls. His doorwings flick back and forth in anger as he continues to pace.

"Well we have to do it, you heard our creator. Not much you can do about it," SparkDrainer says philosophically as he makes himself comfortable on the couch opposite SparkSoul.

"Urgh." SparkSmasher growls before he sits down upon the seat, vents cycling are extremely fast.

"Some of them were kind of cute in a disgusting youngling kind of way," SparkTricker says from where he is seated.

"I guess, any of you guys seen SparkStealer lately? I had to take on her charges as well as mine because she couldn't be bothered to turn up," SparkSoul laments.

"Nah, she's going to get badly punished though next time she bothers to turn up," SparkSmasher answers, seemingly happy about the punishment coming to their sibling.

"I think she's taken to sneaking out of the house. Don't know how she's managing it though. There's a barrier up that doesn't let us teleport out of the house but there also isn't one entrance that's left unguarded," SparkDrainer adds.

"She's an idiot, always has been," SparkTricker says, rolling his optics.

"She'll get herself offlined soon enough, that's for sure," SparkDrainer agrees.

"What, and then I get stuck with all of her charges full time?" SparkSoul says.

"Yep, I'm not taking them on. Bad enough I have to look after my own," SparkSmasher puts in.

"Very helpful," SparkSoul retorts.

"I don't aim to please, little femme," SparkSmasher replies.

"I'm no little femme. I can take you down easily," SparkSoul challenges.

SparkSmasher launches himself off of his couch towards SparkSoul. The femme meets him midway. They collide and fall to the floor, throwing punches at one another. SparkSoul gets her brother pinned to the floor, perched on top of him in victory. Beneath her SparkSmasher grunts and wriggles around but doesn't manage to break his sister's grip.

SparkSoul lets her brother up once he concedes to the fact that she's one. He leaves immediately after, fuming. SparkDrainer follows him out, heading towards his room. The femme settles down on the opposite couch where SparkDrainer had been sitting before.

"You shouldn't antagonise him like that little sister," SparkTricker says softly.

"He can't go around like that all the time either. If the rest of you won't stand up to him it'll have to be me."

"Just watch your back, he holds grudges."

"I'll watch it."

With this they both hop and head towards their individual rooms. SparkSoul settles down onto her berth, looking up at the ceiling in the dim light. The bonds that she's formed hum gently within her spark. Reaching out along each of them in turn she learns that each of her charges are content for the moment. Shutting down the feedback from the bonds she lapses into recharge.

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Thanks for reading. Let me know what you think!


	6. Chapter 6

Hey Everyone! Apologies for the long wait, school really got busy at the end of the term there. Here is Chapter 6 which I hope you all enjoy. Two reviews and the next chapter will be up within the week, if not it will most likely be two weeks before I get spurred into getting on the computer for something other than schoolwork...or hockey. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far!

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Chapter 6

Vorns later SparkSoul is pulled from recharge by a sharp pain searing through her spark. It's her creator calling her to him and so without even allowing her processor to boot up fully she teleports to where he is waiting.

The pain doesn't ease off but she straightens up and boots up both battle computers and brings her processor up to full power. Looking around she notices the mechs in front of her and immediately shifts her armour into place, internally checking to make sure that her tandem swords are safe in their subspaces.

She's tugged forward by the connection and stumbles into her place next to her brothers. SparkTwister stands in the middle, tall with his doorwings spread out wide. SparkSoul copies him and allows their family mark to glow upon her wings.

SparkStealer falls into place at SparkTwister's side as their Creator appears in front of them, facing towards the other mechs in the abandoned hall. They aren't in Praxus, rather somewhere between Praxus and Kaon.

On the mechs in front of SparkSoul markings begin to appear on their chests. It's easily recognisable from the conversations held in their household, it's the Kaonian ancients.

None of the siblings move towards the opposing mechs instead standing still and tall as they wait for their brother to lead them. Their Creator says something to the mech standing in front of the Kaonian ancients before moving to the side and watching them all with piercing eyes.

Suddenly SparkSoul feels all seven of her sibling bonds opening up. Across each one comes a flood of tactical data which she streams through her battle computers. Her second one takes this new information while the first works through her sensor feeds to formulate plans. As soon as one is ready she sends it across the bond to the other tacticians and through to SparkTwister.

Nothing is said out loud however both SparkSmasher and SparkDrainer step forwards, away from their line and into the middle of what must be the battle zone. They stand a moderate distance apart and SparkSoul figures the bond between them must be wide open right now, the way they are moving in perfect synchronicity.

From the opposing line two bulky mechs step forward in unison. They don't have any doorwings however their shoulders are very bulky. They don't hold any obvious weapons but they could have some within their subspace.

The four mechs in between the two lines stay still for a moment before SparkDrainer and SparkSmasher start to armour up, allowing their heaviest armour to slip out of their subspace and shield their frames. Layer after layer of steel clashes into place as their legs begin to unfold, allowing them to become taller.

The mechs opposing follow suit, however they don't have quite the same amount of armour as Drainer and Smasher. SparkSoul watches on as both groups prepare for battle. SparkSmasher is the first to move, targeting the mech directly in front of him.

The two collide in a crash of steel which reverberates loudly throughout the room. SparkSoul almost flinches with the sound but manages to refrain. The fight becomes ugly when SparkDrainer adds himself to the mix, hands taking grip of the mech in front of him to force him into the ground.

Each of them fights hard, intakes whirring as they struggle to take enough air into their body to sustain the violent activity. SparkSmasher's shoulder coolant line is torn from his shoulder and a small amount of coolant goes flying before he cuts of the coolant flow to that section of his frame. In retaliation Smasher takes his opponent to the ground, swinging hard with his right hand.

It connects with his opponent's jaw and the plating is torn from its spot, bouncing along the ground. The mech is now missing the bottom half of his jaw and energon pours from the torn wires. SparkSmasher doesn't let up, just continues to pound on the mech until he can barely move, lying on the floor.

SparkTwister must tug them back from the battle field because Smasher and Drainer back away from their opponents before armouring down and re-joining the line. SparkTwister sends SparkIllusion and SparkTricker out next. They walk forwards before stopping to armour up. From the opposing line two of the less bulky mechs come forwards as well. This fight begins when one of the opposing mechs leaps forwards to take SparkTricker to the ground. He falls with a loud bang but already his hands are up and around the opposing mech's neck. The second Kaonian mech unsheathes swords before darting in towards SparkIllusion. Illusion doesn't have time to get his own swords out and so take a hard hit to his side, the swords slashing through the least protected area of his frame.

He doesn't make a sound as he collapses to the ground onto his knees, leaning over slightly. The other mech doesn't notice when Illusion pulls his own swords from subspace and so is caught unawares as SparkIllusion shoves the sword straight up and through his torse.

The Kaonian mech falls to the ground while Illusion staggers to his feet. The Kaonian mech is fast though and reaches his feet at the same time as Illusion. They dance around each other to the best of their abilities, injured frames making it hard for them both. SparkIllusion misses his footing and trips slightly, allowing the Kaonian to plunge his sword through Illusion's torso, close to the spark.

SparkSoul nearly collapses at the pain that comes searing through her spark as SparkIllusion collapses to the ground in a pool of black energon. It spreads outwards from his frame as the Kaonian mech straightens up.

SparkTricker is fighting alone now and so he whips his swords from subspace in anger. His footing never falters as he turns towards the one who offlined Illusion and plunges his own swords straight through the opposing mech's spark casing. The effect is immediate and the Kaonian's optics fade to grey. Tricker doesn't waste a moment and whirls with his swords, slashes his first opponent straight across the torso. Within seconds his swords are retracted and he pins the mech to the ground and begins to pound on him.

The Kaonian must have been given the signal to withdraw from his own leader because he uses a lot of energy to force Tricker off of him, before standing up and backing away. He disarmours before returning to his own line. SparkTricker swiftly does the same.

SparkSoul holds herself still as the pain continues to wash through her spark in waves. The sibling bond is broken and SparkIllusion is offline. There's a gaping hole in her spark where there never was before, the connection having been one that formed when she was extremely young. There's a haunting look in SparkTricker's optics as he returns to the line. SparkSoul prepares for going out next.

She feels the nudge from SparkTwister and steps out, SparkCrusher beside her. This is unexpected, SparkSoul had expected to step out beside SparkStealer but this is a pleasant change. The bond between herself and her sibling flares open as they step forwards together. Their wings spread wide as they let their extra armour slip over their frames. They both grow in height by about a meter, stretching upwards and bulking out.

Heavy armour clicks into place over SparkSoul's doorwings and settles over the rest of her frame. She slides her face mask into place before launching forwards into the mech directly in front of her. There don't seem to be any femmes with the Kaonians, their group made up of only mechs.

SparkSoul lets her fist impact with the mech's helm before using the force of the retaliating punch to roll backwards and smash into his torso. They tussle on the ground, SparkSoul landing multiple hard hits while only receiving one in return. As they regain their feet the mech opposing her whips out two swords and in return SparkSoul unsheathes her tandem swords, rotating them once to warm them up.

There seems to be some sort of gasp from the Kaonian group on the sidelines as she darts forwards, sliding the swords straight through her opponent's torso. The swords perform as if she were doing a drill in the training room; it feels as if there is no opposition to her swords.

The mech before her crashes to the ground, energon gushing from his side. Before SparkSoul can turn to help her sibling something grabs her doorwing and pull down hard, attempting to tear it from her back. SparkSoul lets the armour on the top side of her doorwings to slid back to reveal a sharp blade. Quickly she rotates the doorwing to slice through the appendage which is gripping it.

As soon as the pressure is gone she turns and swings her sword through the mech, in exactly the same place she did with the other Kaonian. SparkCrusher is right behind the mech, thrusting his own swords through. The mech is offline when he crashes to the ground in a heap, optics dark.

A tug across the sibling link sends both SparkSoul and SparkCrusher back to their own lines, sheathing their swords and withdrawing their armour. There's a feeling of intense, sick joy flooding the sibling bond with SparkCrusher so SparkSoul is glad when she can withdraw slightly from the connection.

She returns to the line and stands tall, awaiting what comes next. Everyone except for SparkTwister and SparkStealer has fought however there's only one mech left in the opposing line that hasn't fought yet. SparkTwister steps forward instead of SparkStealer after a moment.

His armour slips over his frame with barely a sound. Instead of launching himself forwards he lets the other mech come to him. It's only a few astroseconds before the Kaonian crashes into the ground. They've won the fight.

SparkTwister returns to their line, stands at the front with his wings spread out. Their Creator steps forwards into the middle of the ring with the mech who must be the creator of the opposing mechs. The two of them shake hands before turning towards their respective creations.

Creator One comes towards them all and looks them up and down. He doesn't say anything out loud but must talk to SparkTwister internally because SparkSoul soon receives a message from SparkTwister telling them all to return to the house.

The siblings teleport back to the house, SparkSoul returning to her room instead of the common room where the others are likely to head. SparkTricker follows her back to her room though, instead of heading into his own. He sits down upon the berth next to her and they stare at the ground in companionable silence. The fading pain in their sparks is the only reminder of the loss of their brother.

"If I offline, can you look after my charges for me?" SparkTricker asks after a while.

"Sure, will you look after mine?"

"Sure."

They sit in silence for a little while longer, contemplating the way that their brother had offlined. He had been the only other tactician in the family and the loss is hitting them hard.

"I'm going to head back to my room. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow."

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Thanks for reading, please review. Constructive criticism welcome.


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